IRS announces that per diem rate remains unchanged for 2009

Discussion in 'Trucker Taxes and Truck Financing' started by Cybergal, Sep 29, 2008.

  1. Roadmedic

    Roadmedic Road Train Member

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    The payment by the LLC would be deductible but limited due to the nature of the meals and entertainment rules. This means it would be subject to the same restriction as the driver on the subject of 80% deductible. Not a problem, but doable without looking further into it.

    Second proposition is out.

    The trucker received a monetary contribution toward these expenses. Therefore in order to deduct them, it has to be declared as income.

    In order for the LLC to have the ability to do this it would be best to have a plan in writing. Such a plan then negates the ability of the driver due to the fact there is no money spent by the driver for the deduction as allowed.
     
    jerry_c Thanks this.
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  3. CommDriver

    CommDriver Road Train Member

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    Just as I reminder, to anyone planning to get a home loan anytime soon, all of your unreimbursed expenses are deducted from your gross income to come up with "how much you make" in order to qualify for a loan. This even includes your charitable giving. It can severely cut your buying power if you deduct a lot and/or make a lot of charitable contributions.
     
  4. Rocks

    Rocks Road Train Member

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    Sorry, wrong thread... :biggrin_25526:
     
  5. mathematrucker

    mathematrucker Medium Load Member

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    You're mixing apples and bowling balls. That $7 figure you throw in to support your claim that truckers are getting ripped off, implies you're expecting Uncle Sam to actually pay for your meals rather than exempt you from having to pay tax on the income you used to buy those meals. We all know that's not going to happen anytime soon, either for us or for any government employees (well, maybe for some - the President probably doesn't have to spend his own money for meals - but not many).

    In actuality the $52 meal deduction (or whatever - $59) is equivalent to receiving a tax free per diem check for the same amount, with the one minor exception that a per diem check gets you the tax benefit right away instead of having to wait until tax time. That's not a very big difference. There are a lot of other per diem factors that really screw the driver over, that you didn't touch.
     
  6. mathematrucker

    mathematrucker Medium Load Member

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    Even though the standard deduction and the standard meal deduction are mutually exclusive in general, there's one specific case where the two overlap. It rarely gets mentioned in trucker tax discussions about per diem, so I'll mention it here:

    Drivers who receive per diem pay who do not have enough other deductions for it to make sense for them to itemize, get to receive BOTH the benefit of the standard meal deduction (in the form of per diem pay) AND the standard deduction. This little-mentioned fact amounts to roughly $1000/year in tax savings for drivers who receive per diem pay, give or take a few hundred dollars.

    It's important to keep in mind that this only applies to a small percentage of drivers (10% at best), and the numerous drawbacks to per diem unfortunately outweigh this thousand-dollar bonus. For nearly 100% of drivers, the per diem method is worse than deducting at the end of the year.
     
  7. toni75

    toni75 Bobtail Member

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    On step#1
    If the driver forms an LLC or corp. and pays per diem to himself the plan will not meet the IRS requirements for ‘Plans’ that allow the employee to use the allowance ($59/day) as proof for the amount of the expenses.(That is because the employee is more than 10% owner of the employer.)

    And as Roadmedic said the LLC can deduct 80% not 100%


    On step#2
    If the driver has some other income (from driving or otherwise – say wife’s salary) He will have no problem deducting the standard or the itemized deduction – whichever serves him best.


    Toni, CPA
     
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